In the formation of terry loops in the knitting of heels and toes for socks it is the common practice to form terry loops on the terry sinkers between all of the active needles during both the narrowing and widening operations so that terry loops are formed along the suture lines connecting the narrowed and widened sections of the heel and toe. It is necessary to maintain a vertical separation of the body yarn and the terry yarn to properly form terry loops and the body yarn has a tendency to also be drawn over the top of the nebs of the first few terry sinkers when starting an oscillation of the machine. When this occurs, the body yarn may be cut or large eyelets may be formed in the suture.